Library Column for October 31, 2018

Happy Halloween! Kids who stop by the library today in costume can pick out a free book!

It is time to stock up on shack and cabin reading and listening. Here are some great titles to enjoy after dark or whenever. Two regional authors with new books include David Housewright has a new Rushmore McKenzie, ‘occasional unlicensed private investigator’, book called Like to Die. He sets out to help an acquaintance as her growing business is being harassed. Or is it? Nothing is simple or straightforward and McKenzie is left wondering if we can ever really know who our friends are. Janet Kay who wrote the Waters of the Dancing Sky set on Rainy Lake is back with a new novel called The Sisters, partially set in Duluth.

Stay Hidden by Paul Doiron starts with a hunting accident that quickly becomes a ‘dangerously complicated murder investigation.’ Game Warden Mike Bowditch is new to his job and after another accident calls everyone away he is all that is left when the call comes in that someone shot and killed a woman on a remote island off the coast of Maine. Harry’s Trees by Jon Cohen takes place in the wild and remote Pennsylvania Endless Mountains. Harry, suddenly widowed at thirty-four is unable to cope. He is determined to lose himself in the mountains but ‘fate intervenes in the form of a fiercely determined young girl.’ Oriana and her mother Amanda are trying to pick up the pieces in their own lives and Oriana decides that Harry is the key to righting her world. A beautiful story, in a beautiful setting about the power of friendship and love and how magical adventure can be.

If the woods are too quiet then try J.T. Ellison’s thrillers Lie to Me and the newly released sequel Tear Me Apart about Mindy Wright a competitive skier in a fight for her life and family, whomever that turns out to be.

The Cold War was thrilling, at least on paper. Safe Houses by Dan Fesperman is set in West Berlin in 1979 and a series of unauthorized encounters by Helen that force her to run. Her attempts to expose the truth of what she has seen and heard will affect her and her daughter into the present day when her daughter is forced to chase down what is buried in her mother’s past.

In closing, two stories with local ties are A Fish Like Grampa’s by Thomas McCabe set on Pelican Lake and Northland: A 4,000 mile journey along America’s Forgotten Border by Porter Fox.

Storytime tomorrow, Thursday, November 1 will be held at 10:30 am and feature stories, rhymes and more about farms and the animals that live there. Children of all ages, but particularly those not yet of school age, are welcome to bring their caregiver and join the fun. Listen to stories, practice rhymes and more for about thirty minutes then enjoy about thirty minutes of free play with our early learning toys.